Topics: Sergio Ramos, Paris Saint-Germain, Lionel Messi, Barcelona, Real Madrid
A few years ago, if you'd have said to your mate that Lionel Messi and Sergio Ramos would become teammates and that Barcelona's record goalscorer would let a Real Madrid legend take a penalty then they would have told you where to go.
But that is the bizarre and unexpected reality we are in, with the pair going from long-time rivals to colleagues at Paris Saint-Germain after both joined on free transfers last summer.
The Ligue One champions returned to action on Friday with a friendly against Ligue 2 outfit Quevilly-Rouen and both Messi and Ramos started the first game under new manager Christophe Galtier.
Advert
And the opening saw Messi win a penalty after being fouled inside the area. But instead of stepping up from 12 yards as we've seen him do for club and country he let Ramos, a reliable penalty taker, assume the honours.
Ramos did the business from the spot and rolled the penalty in off the post. But Messi giving Ramos the penalty was still very much an unusual sight that couldn't quite be comprehended by some:
Last season, Messi missed a costly penalty in the Champions League round of 16 against Real Madrid, with Thibaut Courtois getting down low to make the save.
The seven-time Ballon d'Or winner appears to have dropped down the spot-kick order as a result.
Messi and Ramos played against each other 45 times in Barca-Real El Clasico fixture and regularly got into it in the heated encounters.
Ramos seemed to make it his mission to injure Messi and was sent off twice for hacking down the Argentine.
But then after their contracts in La Liga ran out, they both moved to PSG and were all smiles at the official unveiling event.
After they became teammates, it was reported that Ramos made a peace offering of sorts to Messi when he told him he could stay with at his house in Paris, though he politely declined the offer.
